Nuclear Radiation and Health Effects - Updated Position

Uranium (Nuclear Minerals) / Related Environmental Issues / Environmental Impact - Cases, Nuclear Wastes (Used Fuel)

Date posted: 06/04/15

The WNA just released their updated view on radiation and health effects. 1. Natural sources account for most of the radiation we all receive each year. 2. The nuclear fuel cycle does not give rise to significant radiation exposure for members of the public, and even in the two major nuclear incidents, Three Mile Island and Fukushima, exposure to radiation has caused no harm to the public, i.e., no one died and no one exhibited radiation sickness. 3. Radiation protection standards assume that any dose of radiation, no matter how small, involves a possible risk to human health. But this deliberately conservative assumption is increasingly being questioned. 4. Fear of radiation causes much harm. Expressed particularly in government and media edicts following the Fukushima accident, they have caused much unwarranted suffering and deaths related to anxiety and fear. Visible light, the ultra-violet light we receive from the sun, and transmission signals for TV and radio communications are all forms of radiation that are common in our daily lives. These are all generally referred to as non-ionizing radiation, though at least some ultra-violet radiation is considered to be ionizing. Radiation particularly associated with nuclear medicine and the use of nuclear energy, along with X-rays, is ionizing radiation, which means that the radiation has sufficient energy to interact with matter, especially the human body, and produce ions, i.e. it can eject an electron from an atom. Some radioactive materials that reach the environment decay to safe levels within days, weeks or a few years, while others continue their effect for a long time, as do most chemical cancer-inducing agents and toxins. Certainly this is true of the chemical toxicity of heavy metals such as mercury, cadmium and lead. These of course are a natural part of the human environment anyway, like radiation, but maintain their toxicity forever.